More than a Critic of Locke and Berkeley: Baxter on Dreams and Imagination
Archivio Istituzionale della Ricerca December 1, 2025 David Bartha
Andrew Baxter, an eighteenth-century philosopher best known for criticizing Berkeley, developed a sophisticated and original theory of dreaming that has been largely ignored. His account emphasizes the passivity, uniqueness, and epistemic significance of dreams, distinguishing them clearly from imagination—an improvement over the faculty psychology of his predecessors. Baxter's theory also reveals problems in Locke and Berkeley's attempts to treat dreaming and imagination as similar, particularly regarding mental transparency and self-consciousness. The paper explores possible Berkeleyan responses to Baxter's challenges.